23 Month Old Son Wakes up at Least 3 Times a Night - Every Night!

When my daughter went through this we gave her water to supplement needing a bottle or a cup to soothe her when she was hungry but it was bedtime it helped then and the benefits now are she will drink water over soda so we got a double reward she is 15 now i did the same with my son some result resting comfortably at night he does not drink as much water but he likes it and can handle a NO to soda's it was a comfort to the kids knowing they had some control over waking in their space and having someting but did not need us to go to him. Now both the kids are very independent.
Good luck
S.

i am a single sahm of a 26 month old boy. like you up until about 2 months ago i could count on one hand the number of times he has slept completely through the night in his own bed. when he was a newborn i always let him sleep with me. he just slept longer if he was in my bed. when i made him sleep in his bassinett and then crib when he got older he would only sleep for maybe 2-3 hours at night but if i let him sleep with me he slept for like4-6 hours easy. so i started the bad habit and now im paying the price with my sister saying i told you so everytime. 2 days after he turned 6 months old he broke himself of the pacifier. he just didnt want it anymore. so i have no idea how to wean a child from a pacifer. but as he got older he got a little better about sleepling in his bed but he still woke up at between 3-6 am and i would bring him into bed with me. when i got pregnant with no. 2 who is now 7mo i realized this had to change but had no idea what to do. about 6 months ago we got him a big boy bed and i told him he had to sleep there from now on. well we spent about 2-3 months of every night we put him in bed and within 5 minutes he was up and standing in the hallway. so i would put him back in bed and he'd just do it again for the next 30 min-3 hours. and by morning he was in my bed cuz he didnt have to cry for me so he just got up and came to my room on his own. he would always go right back to sleep but still.... well very slowly he has started to grow out of it. he sleeps through most of the night now and only joins me in bed about 1-2 a week. now when baby brother was born i changed my way of thinking (plus he's a GOOD baby) i decided that he is NOT sleeping with me unless he is sick and i have successfully stuck to it. in fact i say he's a good baby because he has been sleeping through the night from about 9-10pm - 9-10am since he was 6 weeks old. the only times he has ever slept with me is when he is sick and i have never had a problem getting him to put himself to sleep or stay asleep. he usually wants his pacifier to go to sleep with but if he wakes up and doesnt have his pacifier he just sucks his thumb.

i tell you all this so you know 2 things. 1) the older one WILL grow out of it and 2) if you dont let bad habits start with no 2, you'll never have to worry about breaking those habits.

good luck and i hope he sleeps soon
steph

O my gosh!! You are living my life!! Every single thing that you are saying im just sitting here shaking my head at. Personally this is what I have found and its not good news...
I have a son that will be 3 on the 22nd and every single night was to the T like yours. After talking to other moms and his Dr. (not to mention all the books) we came to the decision that it was the stupid "B". I even went as far as putting 2 or 3 next to him in bed so he could find one and that didnt work either. Our bedroom is downstairs and my sons is upstairs and it got to a point that I would just sleep in the spare room up there to save some steps. Again, just like you, I became pregnant (still not sure when/how that happened. lol) and it became more of a priority to me to resolve the issue. I had our baby 2 weeks after my son turned 2 and after everything settled down with the new addition we took the beloved "B" away. Since then he now sleeps all night (most nights)and is able to put himself to sleep. He did however need a new comfort and twists the corner of his pillow. It was very tough at the beginning but now very worth it. HOWEVER, the good news is that I never even attempted to give the baby a "B" and he is the BEST sleeper ever. He will be 1 the 5th of next month and has been sleeping all night since I stopped nursing at 9 months and only woke once to eat around 3am before that (other than when he was very new but still only to eat). Good luck and your sooo not alone.

Hi D.,

I know how tired you are. My son started to do this, but now at 3,mostly sleeps thru the night now with no problem. I agree with the routine like Wendy B said. Only 1 nap a day and fun playing in the evening after dinner and before bath time really wears them out. A good rub down and muscle massage with lotion after a bath and bed around 8:30 is a really relaxing way to get them to calm down. My son loves getting massages on his arms and legs. When he was 8 wks old he started sleeping thru the night and only woke up a handful of times til he was 18 mo. At nap time and night time he started not wanting to go to sleep. I tried the cry 5 minutes, go in and lay him down and pat his back a few times and leave. If still crying wait 10 minutes, then 15 min, adding 5 minutes everytime. Keep the room dark without a night light too. It only took 2-3 days and he never cried longer than 25 minutes and it got shorter every time. Now that it's getting nicer outside, play games outside like soccer or chase him around, something where he has to run, it really wears them out. I would NEVER recommend giving a child a medicine to make them go to sleep unless it was necessary and prescribed by a doctor. Don't take the easy way out with medication. Besides Benadryl hypes my son up not sleepy.

Good luck!!

D.-

My sister's son would wake up like that wanting his pacifier, then he would go back to sleep. She bought him a little bear, that had a pocket in the front of it and put several pacifiers in the pocket each night before bed and put the bear at the head of the bed with him. He learned if he woke up, to reach in the bears pocket for a pacifier and he would put himself back to sleep. It worked until he finally slept more soundly, then she told him he had to give his pacifier to Santa on Christmas Eve and he did and never looked back. This all worked for her maybe you could try it too. Right now, with Easter coming up, you could probably find a little soft easter basket to put the pacifiers in.

Good luck.

R.

This is such a commmon problem that I think we all face at one time .I have 3, my oldest 7 and youngest 2 . I have dealt with this issue with each one. The oldest we just let come sleep with us when he got up and came in there in the middle of the night. With one , its easier. When I got pregnant with number two and number one was kicking me in the middle of the night and I was tired the whole next day I knew I had to make changes. We began by walking him back to his room . He was about 27 months old.We did it as many times as it took . Yes exhausting but consistency is the key. After a few nights he still came in but went back without a fight. I kept number 2 in a crip as long as possible. When I got pregnant with number 3, number 2 was 22 months old. Gosh we were busy looking back, ha!! My husband got a new job and moved before us when number 3 was born. So I was home with a 5 , 2 and 2 month. The 2 year old had a pacifer that he began to talk behind. I had 3 or 4 because if we lost one it was devastating. We had to put him in bunk beds with older brother when little sister arrived. At the same time I told him the trash man came and got his pacifer. We went cold turkey. Thats the only way to do it. He cried for 3 nights and that was it.
He would sleep all night but going to sleep was the battle with this one. Each child is so different. Since my husband was away during the week and I was nursing a newborn I was so tired and had to get creative with getting this guy to go to bed. I got a poster board and made a chart with magazine cut outs of different activities. Starting from supper time on our evening was planned out. I did not change it unless we had church or ball games. They ate, got to watch 30 min. of TV, take a bath, read books , snack, bed. No Exceptions.
I put stickers by each activity they did without griping. If they went to sleep without me coming back and forth 100 times, they got another sticker. IF they had so many stickers in 2 weeks they got a prize.I let there be 3 mess ups I think!!
It worked so well even for a two year old.
Number 3 is now 2. From the beginning , since I knew better, she never slept with us unless she was sick. She always went to bed awake and put herself to sleep. She is now in a toddler bed and sleeps from 9-8. Its heaven.
Sorry to keep rambling, I just know how frustrated you are.
Make sure you do something and stick with it, he will get the point and begin to give up the fight. It may take a week or two ,just keep doing it. Plan to have a set plan when the new one arrives to avoid the same pattern!! Good luck!!D.

I know it is tough, but you've got to be firm and its not going to pleasant, but I know eventually it'll work out for you. This is what I did for my oldest, I learned it from the show the Super Nanny. I told her it was bedtime the first time she got out of bed and put her back in, the same the second time, the third I said nothing. Its hard to do in the middle of the night, but eventually it worked and it didn't even seem to take that long. Also, my pediatrician has always told me that at this age they could end up crying for a few hours. But, I do recommend this technique and doing it now, especially when you've got just one sleep monster to deal with. And even though you are tired, I would also recommend doing the same thing for naptime, that way he knows what the rules are when it comes to sleep.

I have the same problem! My son is 27-months old now and still going through that. He's been getting up 4-5 times a night this last week. All I have to do is go in and rub his back for about 2-secondd and he's fine. Still, I'm sick of having to get out of bed! The only thing that has worked for me, is to let him cry when I put him down for bed. I don't know if your son cries or not when first going to bed, but if I go back into his room when he's crying when I first put him down, I can guarantee he'll wake up in the middle of the night. If I let him cry and tell him that I'm not going to come back, he'll sleep through the night. I'm just such a sucker and hate hearing him cry. I know that if I can get through the first two nights he'll be ok, but I can't get through the first two nights! I feel so bad. Plus when I go in there, just once, after he goes to bed, he'll go to sleep. So it's a lose/lose situation. I either have to let him cry when I put him down, or wake up in the middle of the night with him. I don't know if that helps or not. My pediatrician told me the same thing. It's really frustrating. Good luck to you, let me know if you find anything that works!

Hello D.! I have been going through the same thing, your not alone in this believe me! My daughter is 16 months and she has never slept through the night, well maybe not ever but I can count on my fingers how many times she has. I started last night just laying her down at bedtime, it was my very first time to ever do this. I would always rock her for about 20 to 30 minutes a night then once she is asleep then of course lay her down. Everynight she would wake up numerous times and want me to rock back to sleep. So finally I said enough is enough I want to start sleeping through the night. So last night I just laid her down and said night night and she only cried for less than ten minutes and then went to sleep and slept through the whole night! :) Today at naptime i did the same I just laid her down and she cried for 30 seconds seriously and fell asleep, I did once again today and she didnt even cry at all!!! She just went to sleep, so I guess we will see how it goes tonight, but so far so good!! You might try it!

Someone once told me to get rid of passi is to "lose" them. Throw it out the car window and don't buy replacement. Have all the rest hidden or tossed before you head out. This may help with the need for the passi.
As for sleeping I would just put him back in bed and not say a word to him. We had to do this with our daughter she is a little over 2. She learned how to climb out of her every morning she comes in to say good morning but she will sleep in her crib. It took about two nights of about 4 hours. She would climb out we would put her back, she would clib out we would put her back. We give her two toys to take to bed. She only get two and if she throws them out she doesn't get any unless she gets them. We are planning on moving her to a toddler bed soon so ask me then how this works.

hi D.,
For starters i would get you and him on a routine as in get up at 8am, get dressed, have breakfast, play for a little bit, do othere things in this time like color things like that then have lunch 11 or 12 or son and then go down for a nap say 1 to 3 and then he doesnt take another nap for the rest of the day. dinner at 6pm a bath, read a book and off to bed by 9 or so. while you are on this routine during the day you limit the pacifier if he leaves it laying around pick them up and hide them where he cant see them. gradually you work up to only at nap time and then weed it out then to. until you are down to bedtime.
In my opinion its not the pacifier he wants, its you to come in and get him he knows that at one point you WILL come in and get him. so all he has to do is get up enough times and you will come in there and then hes in your bed. basically hes got your number and hes gonna use it to his advantage.
what would happen if you just dont go get him, put a gate up in his doorway so he cant get out. remove the toys if you have to so he will go back to sleep. he may fall asleep on the floor but at least you didnt go get him.
by you having him on a schedule you are able to get things accomplished and he knows whats gonna happen next. instead of taking naps everyday at different times it would be everyday at the same time. and this way also when the new baby gets there you will already have this in place.
look at naptime as your time to just sit down, take a nap yourself or get something done. and you wont be tired all day. good luck. W. child care provider and mom of 4

Hi there,

first let me concratulate you to the pregnancy. I'm also pregnant about 3 or 4 month ( don't really know yet). I'm a mother of 4 children and one of my own did that to me. I was about to go crazy. Every night the same game.
What i could suggest you, is try to move his bed. I did that with my son and it worked. Also you could go a lot on the fresh air and let him run in a park, playground etc. let him play outside that he get powerd out, workes too and the fresh air supports that too. That is all for right now, what i could tell you, when i can think of more then i let you know.
Oh there is one more thing, don't feed him anything before bed what includes sugar, that is a bad mistake from a lot of mom's, even they mean it good. But the fact is, that the kids get more energie from the sugar and don't sleep right either.

good luck with your little one and your pregnancy.

Hi D.
Have you tried putting several pacifiers in his bed with him so he can reach around find one and replug himself? It might be worth a try.
Good luck,
C.

hmmm. a couple of things come to mind. first can you give him multiple pacifers in bed? our son had about six so even if he lost one then he could always find another one. also my son went though a period of waking up a lot (although he was 2 1/2) and my doctor recommended I give him three-four nights of Benadryl so his body could get used to sleeping through the night. The Benadryl makes their sleep cycles much deeper and more difficult to rouse out of. Ask your doctor first but this really helped us. Also he might be old enough for some kind of incentive for staying in his room/discipline for coming out.
This too shall pass!

It's very normal for a baby that age to wake up at night. Is it really important for you to have him in his own bed? Our family has found the solution to bedtime struggles by pushing together a queen sized and twin mattresses placed directedly on the floor. My husband sleeps on the right side of the queen bed, I sleep next to him, our 5 month old daughter sleeps next to me and nurses throughout the night, and our 30 month old son sleeps on the twin mattress.

Occaisonally, our son still wakes a little at night. Sometimes he kicks off his covers and gets cold. Sometimes he has a nightmare. Sometimes he just isn't tired (hey, it happens to the best of us! LOL). When he wakes up I can reach over and rub his back, or if he's very upset, like after having a nightmare, I can roll over to him and nurse him back to sleep. This situation works very well for our entire family. We all get plenty of sleep and our oldest kid doesn't feel left out because "Mommy and Daddy get to sleep together but I'm here all all alone".

R.

I have a 26 mth out and he does the same thing. I did not let him sleep with us untill the last month. We are doing the same thing as you we make him sleep in his bed and when he gets up we give him 5 mins with us then we put him back in his own bed. I will keep you posted as to what type of feed back I get on this if you will do the same.

By the way where do you live in the OKC area, I am in Mustang?